Halloween has hit LA, resulting in the 118 going to several spooky related callouts. Hen is left with a hard decision when news of her father, who abandoned her when she was a child, reaches her. Eddie finally reconnects with his estranged wife in order to get Christopher into a new school. Buck finally decides if he’s ready to give up waiting for Abby to return.
Halloween has come to Los Angeles, and the 118 and Athena finds themselves dealing with calls that involve some truly haunting incidents. The 118 are called to the cemetery after a sinkhole swallowed up two gravediggers, and later are called to rescue a hiker who fell down a cliff.
Back in town, a Halloween party is in full swing, with a mounted LAPD officer on horseback monitoring the party. When a little girl dressed as Dorothy Gale comes up to him, the officer introduces his horse, City Slicker, to her, and offers her an apple to feed City Slicker. Unfortunately, trouble brews when a fire-breather accidentally sets a guy's head on fire while he was discharging flammable hairspray and it ignites, and City Slicker is spooked by the chaos, causing his handler to fall off the mount and protect the little girl while City Slicker runs off in a panic. Multiple 911 calls come in for LAFD assistance, soon followed by an Officer Down call over the LAPD channel.
It is soon discovered that City Slicker is the Officer Down, having fallen and critically injured his head. With Los Angeles County Animal Control too far out, and not wishing City Slicker to suffer until they arrive with the veterinarian medication for him, his handler asks for City Slicker to be euthanized to end his suffering. Bobby volunteers to administer the lethal morphine injection, and every LAPD and LAFD member there join arms in unity to pay their final respects for City Slicker's service to Los Angeles as the little girl dressed as Dorothy arrives to comfort the officer as he says goodbye to his steed.
After Halloween is over, Buck departs from Abbie's apartment, Hen signs off on having her father taken off life support as she and Karen are with him in his final moments before he flatlines upon the life support being disconnected, and everyone continues on with what the future holds for them now, despite the hauntings of the past hanging over them.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Buried Alive: In the opening, a grave digger is buried under a sinkhole.
- Disappeared Dad:
- Hen hadn't seen her father since she was nine years old, until Karen tells her he's in the hospital. Her father suffered an intracranial hemorrhage, leaving him brain dead. At the end of the episode, Hen makes the decision to take him off life support.
- The skeleton on the hiking trail was that of Alex Armando Perez. He left behind a son when he died.
- Halloween Episode: The episode takes place on Halloween. Bobby helps make jack-o-lanterns with Michael and May. Diaz dresses up as Snake Plissken, with his son Christopher as Wolverine.
- Haunted House: A haunted house was built over a bat habitat. At first the guests think the bats are All Part of the Show, until they find out they're real.
- Homage: The opening scene at the cemetery is staged like the beginning of Night of the Living Dead (1968), with a staggering dirt-covered figure (a gravedigger who managed to extricate himself from the sinkhole) lurching up behind an unsuspecting mourner.
- Identifying the Body: Athena works to discover who the dead hiker was. His name was Alex Armando Perez.
- Man on Fire: A fire eater brings their torch too close to a man just as he's spraying hairspray, setting fire to his head.
- Mercy Kill: The team has to put the police horse City Slicker down after the Halloween riot made him fall and hit his head. The team doesn't have anything to reliably treat the horse before Animal Control gets there, and his handler doesn't want him to suffer. Hen can't bring herself to give the horse the morphine shot, so Bobby does it. The little girl dressed as Dorothy Gale who gave City Slicker an apple earlier joins the LAPD and LAFD with saying goodbye, supporting the handler as he mourns the loss of his four-legged partner.
- Moving-Away Ending: Buck leaves Abby's home since he feels like he's her ghost, waiting for her to come home.
- Race Against the Clock: The team has to rescue a grave digger from a sinkhole before it collapses even further.
- Riddle for the Ages:
- Ian the hiker dropped his phone after he went over the cliff, so he didn't call 911. His phone, however, was found near an old skeleton. Who dialed 911 then?
- Athena's childhood involves a missing girl who hasn't been found, even in the present day.
